Congressman Bobby Schilling Flops in First Debate

On the anniversary of his support for unfairtradedeals that undercut Illinois workers, Congressman Bobby Schilling failed to make his case for re-election in the first Illinois 17th Congressional debate. Congressman Bobby Schilling votes with the Tea Party Majority in Congress more than 90 percent of the time even when the agenda hurts Illinois middle class families and seniors. He votedtwice for extreme budgets that gutted Medicare just to pay for new tax breaks for millionaires, Big Oil and corporations that ship jobs overseas. His record on transportation and infrastructure is so poor, Treasury Secretary Ray LaHood slammed Schilling and other obstructionist Members of Congress as “do-nothing Republicans.”

“Congressman Bobby Schilling has the wrong priorities for Illinois because he voted to raise taxes and health care costs on middle class families and seniors, but protected tax breaks for billionaires and corporations that outsource jobs.” said Haley Morris of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “At every chance, Congressman Schilling voted with the Tea Party in Washington and in this debate, he failed to defend his out of touch record that blocked transportation projects, stacks the deck against workers with unfair trade deals, and leaves the middle class behind.” FALSE CLAIM: DEMOCRATS VOTED TO CUT $700 BILLION FROM MEDICARE

House Republicans like Congressman Schilling have attacked Democrats for including $700 billion in Medicare savings in the Affordable Care Act, calling them “cuts.” Not only has Politifact called the Republican claim false, Republicans themselves included those same Medicare cost savings in both House Republican budgets they passed in 2011 and 2012.

CBS News Called the Charge “Dubious.” CBS news called the attack “dubious” and wrote: “it's not the patients who would lose money. It's the providers.” [CBS News, 8/15/12]

New York Times Editorial Board: “$716 Billion Is Not A ‘Cut’ In Benefits. “A Republican attack ad says that the reform law has “cut” $716 billion from Medicare, with the money used to expand coverage to low-income people who are currently uninsured….In reality, the $716 billion is not a ‘cut’ in benefits but rather the savings in costs that the Congressional Budget Office projects over the next decade from wholly reasonable provisions in the reform law.” [Editorial, New York Times, 8/18/12]

Hypocritically, the House Republican Budget that Schilling supported included the same savings from Medicare spending.

Ryan’s FY 2012 Budget Kept The Same Medicare Savings. “In a postelection reversal, House Republicans are supporting nearly $450 billion in Medicare cuts that they criticized vigorously last fall after Democrats and President Barack Obama passed them as part of their controversial health care law. The cuts are included in the 2012 budget that Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., unveiled last week and account for a significant share of the $5.8 trillion in claimed savings over the next decade.” [Associated Press, 4/13/11]

Ryan’s FY 2013 Budget Kept The Same Medicare Savings. “Republicans, including House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, have been critical of Democrats for cutting $500 billion from the program over a decade as part of their health-care overhaul. Still, the House Republican budget written by Ryan retains the cuts.” [Bloomberg, 3/29/12]

The claim that Democratic health care reform includes “rationing” care has been called false by the media and is an outgrowth of the original “death panel” claims. Independent fact checking organizations have declared that claim is “wrong” and that those making the claim have their “pants on fire.”

This attack that the IPAB created by health care reform will “ration” care has repeatedly been called false by the media and concerned groups.

FactCheck.org: “Wrong” to Say there is Rationing in Health Care Reform. “But it’s wrong to say that the advisory board will ration care or that it will be run by bureaucrats…” [FactCheck.org, 5/06/11]

FactCheck.org: The Affordable Care Act Expressly Prohibited Rationing or Denying Care. FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, noted that the health care reform legislation actually banned rationing of care. “The House Energy and Commerce Committee adopted an amendment to the House health care bill expressly prohibiting the comparative effectiveness research from being used to ‘deny or ration’ care.” [FactCheck.org, 8/26/09]

Politifact Called the Claim a “Pants on Fire” Lie. According to PolitiFact, “Actually, the law specifically states that the board cannot ration care. The board doesn’t look at individual patients or deny individual treatments. Instead, it makes system-wide recommendations to rein in the future growth of Medicare spending, and it makes those recommendations within limited parameters. It also was created to stop runaway spending growth within the Medicare program itself, not to divert money to other budget items.” [PolitiFact, 3/15/12]

AARP Wrote That Rationing Of Care In The Health Care Bill Was A “Myth.” AARP wrote that rationing of care in the health care bill was a “myth.” They stated flatly: “None of the health reform proposals being considered would stand between individuals and their doctors or prevent any American from choosing the best possible care.” [AARP, accessed 4/5/12]

FALSE CLAIM: SCHILLING’S PLAN WOULD “SAVE MEDICARE”

Don’t be fooled by the spin. The Ryan budgets end Medicare.

Wall Street Journal: The Republican budget “would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/4/11]

Congressional Research Service: “Individuals who become eligible (based either on age or disability) for Medicare in 2022 and later years would not be able to enroll in the current Medicare program.” [CRS Report, 4/13/11 <http://thehill.com/images/stories/blogs/ryancrs.pdf> ]

The Economist: The House Republican budget “ends the guarantee that all American seniors will have health insurance.” [The Economist, 4/5/11]

FALSE CLAIM: SCHILLING DIDN’T SERVE AS A ROADBLOCK TO INFRASTRUCTURE

While Congressman Schilling and his Tea Party compatriots attempt to paint themselves as a moderates more concerned about improving our nation’s economy, in reality Schilling has served as little more than a road block to infrastructure investment. Schilling has consistently voted against investing in transportation and even endorsed a transportation bill so extreme that even Transportation Secretary LaHood condemned the bill’s backers as “do-nothing Republicans.”

Schilling Praised The House Transportation Bill. In an April 2012 news conference, Schilling “praised” the House transportation bill. According to analysis conducted by the House Transportation Committee, the “American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012” (HR 7) would cost Illinois $884,732,098 worth of federal highway funding and destroy 30,770 jobs in the state. [Quad-Cities Times, 4/2/12; H Rept. 112-397, 2/13/12; House Transportation Committee’s Comparison of Current Law and HR 7, 2/16/12]

LaHood Slammed “60 Do-Nothing Republicans” and Earmark Laden Transportation Bill. “There are 50 or 60 members of the House that came here to do nothing, and that’s what they’ve done for the last year and a half, they’ve done nothing. […] Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Cantor they know that they could pass that bill. They know it, but they don’t want to do it because of politics. […] There will not be a [transportation] bill before the election. The bill that is in—considered by the House today—probably will pass the House—it is as big a Christmas Tree as I have ever seen, ever, in Washington. Look at what they’ve loaded it up with: Keystone pipeline, coal ash, drilling, all the things that they think will assuage some of their members. And, none of it has anything to do with transportation. And little of it has anything to do with creating jobs.” [Politico, 4/18/12]